Chapter 13: Delivery Driver

  Dinner slowed their car to a stop next to my scooter and gently pulled on the handbrake. They pushed a button on their steering wheel and removed the whole assembly, setting it on the back seat next to Lyra.

  I didn't see Amelia anywhere nearby, but there was a shadow moving through the house, so I drew the revolver and looked at the others.

  “Something doesn't feel right,” I whispered.

  Dinner closed their eyes tight as they held onto the roll cage, looking like they were in excruciating pain as they clamped their eyes shut.

  “I’ll join you in a moment,” they said.

  “Do you need me to help you out?” I asked.

  They shook their head. “It flares up like this when the weather changes. I just need a minute.”

  I climbed out and folded the seat for Lyra, helping her out of the car.

  “Lady Colterville!” Isabella called out from inside, hailing me with a tone I hadn't heard in a long, long while. “Explain yourself, now!”

  I whispered for Lyra to wait by the car, but it was too late. Isabella stepped out from the front door, arms folded across her leatherbound chest and a deep frown on her face. Her narrowed silver eyes went from me to Lyra, to Dinner’s car and back to me.

  “How could you sire a fledgling without my permission?” Isabella yelled as she walked toward us. “Without the council’s permission?!”

  I put myself between Lyra and my sire. “I had no other choice,” I replied, leaning on the car door, hoping my sire couldn't see Lyra, but she already knew where she was thanks to surface skimming my thoughts. I could feel my sire’s presence just at the edge of my mind like a gentle hand waiting to slap me upside the head for being a foolish fledgling.

  Isabella stopped within an arm’s length of me right when Dinner finally climbed out of the car. Dinner put their hands up and spoke, but even then, pain filled their voice. “I’m going to g-guess that you're Cassandra's boss. I’m Dinner.”

  Isabella raised an eyebrow at them. “Mine as an apology?”

  Dinner nodded. “Y-yes.” Their heart kicked up a notch with a steady thrum. The half-elf tilted their to the side head, exposing their neck for Isabella as they tried to breathe calmly. But calm wasn't on the menu for Dinner. Their breathing was ragged, panicked even.

  Isabella stalked toward the lanky person with a smirk on her face and fangs out. She reached for their shoulders.

  “You want my blood, sire,” I said, focusing on my voice, hopefully drawing her attention before she could grab Dinner’s shoulder. “Leave the half-elf alone.”

  Isabella groaned loudly in reply. She tilted her head forward and caught it in both hands. I knew she would resist the unnatural words, since we weren’t making eye contact. I hadn’t put my full weight into them, but it had the effect of grabbing her attention.

  “You didn't just…” she began, her voice trailing off.

  “I did. Sire, Jean killed Lyra,” I nodded in her direction.

  The elf waved from behind me and motioned with her hands, but only Dinner knew the language.

  Isabella glared at me. “I do not give a damn who drained her! You still fail to understand how the world works, fledgling. We run Westcal!”

  “I was not going to be a wall fixture again!”

  Isabella glared at me, pointing her finger in my direction as she continued, “Tell me you didn’t drain him dry!”

  “You can do that to a vampire?” Dinner glanced from me to Isabella and back again.

  Isabella kept her glare as she tried to intimidate me. Something inside my chest wanted to bow before her, to kneel and beg forgiveness for my stupidity, but another part reminded me that both Jean and David mentioned she worked against me.

  Luckily Dinner’s query distracted her even further. My sire sighed and waved waved in my direction. “My progeny is, regrettably, a habitual Soul Drinker. The void has twisted her beyond any sense of mortal reason, and now the only thing that can truly sate her hunger is consuming a vampire.”

  I dared not tell her what I had been told. Otherwise she may attack the three of us. I wasn’t sure what her abilities were anymore, but it felt like the system knew about mine even without a class. It allowed me to hold my own against Jean. Perhaps I could have done more and actually harmed him had I a high level class, but how can I get a higher level class when my sire and Jean had twenty years to level? Isabella was a max level sorceress, too!

  That meant… well, nothing to me without a point of reference. For all I knew it just ensured she could cast spells properly and did nothing for impacts.

  Perhaps if I found a book explaining the system or actually listened to Dinner and Caleb then I could know more. Such as why were some classes highlighted green and others not.

  My lips twitched in an attempt to open my mouth and spill the truth. I slapped myself to stop it. I walked around the car door and showed Isabella my neck, sliding my coat past my shoulders so my exposed skin was visible. “Take all of mine if it makes you feel better. I don’t care.”

  “You will when they come for your head like they came for Roberto.”

  “I don’t regret saving her, sire.”

  “They won’t give you the courtesy of tying you to a pole until sunrise either. You’re too dangerous, Lady C.” She sliced her hand in front of her throat as if to emphasize my fate.

  Her words sent a proverbial ice pick right through my gut. It twisted around and tore my insides out. Another void in my heart, but vastly different to Amelia’s. One in which I gave Roberto my all in the hopes of being embraced only to be passed from one vampire master to the next when they killed him for doing what I did to Lyra.

  Lyra pushed past me, holding her book out for Isabella to take, tapping an open page fairly noisily. My sire took it from her and read it before flipping back through the book.

  “Fuck me…” Isabella whispered to herself, eyes wide at whatever the contents were.

  “What?” I asked.

  “You embraced the Blood Baroness of Halifax. She…” Isabella looked up from the page to me, then Lyra and then Dinner. “How much do you trust that mortal?” my sire added, nodding toward Dinner.

  “It’s too late for that question,” I replied to her, referencing our earlier conversations about stealing a vampire’s soul through draining them dry. It wasn’t common knowledge or even talked about. Generally, all who did it were shunned by vampires and mortals alike. Unless they got good at hiding their urges like I did. Then no one was the wiser until my sire tattled on me like the trollop she is.

  Dinner stood by the front of their car partially leaned forward as the half-elf held their lower back, shaking their head from side to side. “Oh trust me, you have no idea the kind of bullshit I deal with on a daily basis. Vampire secrets? That’s hella weak compared to corporate espionage. I once was interrogated for three days straight, without food or sleep, because a commander was a spy and tried to make me the fall guy!”

  “Corporate espionage is a slap on the wrist to what my fledgling has just drawn you into.”

  “I can hot drop a mech battalion on Encinar and capture the city in, like, six hours at the most.”

  “I can just kill you with the snap of my fingers,” Isabella retorted and snapped her fingers for emphasis.

  “I’ll be back. We can go around and around, bitch.” Dinner flung a hand toward the city for emphasis. "Just admit you're hella weak compared to me and move on."

  "No."

  “What are you, a D Rank Sorceress with party tricks?”

  “C rank actually! Now look here, mortal!" Isabella pointed at Dinner and glared. "An ancient vampire awakening is what caused the Collide, mortal. They used their reality bending powers to bring ruin to the world.”

  Dinner laughed! I tilted my head at the half-elf throwing their head back in a hearty laugh, because my sire sounded like she was speaking the truth. Dinner’s smile said otherwise as they shook their head from side to side. “Really?! Is that what they're teaching these days? Like, I know this planet is far from the Inner Rim, but come on! Don't fall into the stereotype. It was the elves that did it. Everyone knows that. Except idiots like you.”

  Lyra folded her arms across her chest and smirked!

  Isabella rolled her eyes as she gave the book back to Lyra. “I hope you planned this, Lady C, because your fledgling is the go to woman in Halifax if you want a discreet meal; Bags, cans, people, you name it. She can get it.”

  So that is why Lyra wanted out of that club!

  She knew far, far too much about Jean’s operation. But Blood Baroness of Halifax? Surely they could have come up with a better name than that. It’s too obvious!

  My sire pointed between the three of us. “You three lay low for a couple weeks and I will see if I can smooth over this fiasco. Am I clear?”

  Lyra and I nodded in unison while Dinner shrugged.

  “If I don’t. Well… There’s always the hell wastes beyond the tri-valley.”

  Isabella didn't wait for a reply. She went back over to the barn and rode off on her motorcycle, leaving Dinner and I to stare at Lyra.

  The red-haired elf beamed proudly in reply, a wide happy grin on her face that showed off her fangs and teeth. Much like a child showing her mother the newest dress she made. She even had the same air that one usually did when they were extremely proud of themself. It was as if she was the best fledgling ever.

  You’d think she would already be a vampire by now.

  Dinner asked for our clothing sizes so they could go get us some new duds. I sent them a text message with the information. It was around that time Amelia came by to see what was going on and I filled her in. As Dinner drove off, leaving the three of us inside the crumbling house, Amelia looked between Lyra and I with confusion. Though, the ghost smiled after a moment and giggled to herself about something.

  Lyra couldn't really see her like I could. She just saw a shadow sitting next to us that might be something more than the dark room. At least according to the note she showed me in her book.

  I took a deep breath out of habit thanks to Caleb. If Lyra was going to stay with me then she would need to know about Amelia’s true form sooner or later. The idea was still insane to me.

  “Look out the window.” I pointed out the ruined window toward the hill where Amelia’s tree sat.

  Lyra turned to look for a moment, cocking her head as if she didn’t understand.

  “That is Amelia,” I added, nodding to the perplexed elf. “She is a tree now and appears to me as a banshee with no physical form.”

  The elf wrote something down in her book and turned it around so I could see it. ‘So she’s a Dryad without a corporeal form?’

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  Amelia leaned toward the book, gasping softly. “That’s what my projection is called…?”

  “What level are you, Amelia?” I rubbed at my chin, wondering if it had something to do with levels.

  “Tree level ninety-one, but only Hunter level thirty, Rank F with the Animal Keeper subclass.” The ghost… dryad spun around to face me and nodded. “Most of the forest around your property is my domain. I have so many offspring, my love. And none of them are like me!”

  Lyra tapped her book again to get my attention. ‘I can make a call to a wood elf Druid I know and see what’s wrong with Amelia, but no guarantee he can fix it.’ Her written words sounded like they made sense for the short term, so I nodded.

  Amelia’s Quest Updated: Wait for Lyra’s acquaintance to show up.

  Once the message had been sent, I waved in Lyra’s direction as if to have her continue her lessons. I had her focus on the shadows and work with the darkness around her, but I also realized I was not the best teacher, because I never had to teach anyone.

  Amelia already had her vampire hunter abilities and Caleb… was Caleb who thought he knew better than me. Lyra followed my words a few times as the darkness fluttered and flailed uselessly around her.

  She carried my blood and by extension she should have similar abilities in theory. Without easy communication beyond waiting for her to write things down, it was difficult to get her thoughts. It should, in theory, be easy having her focus on pulling the shadows to her like a blanket, but it wasn’t. Lyra managed to do it and became wreathed in a fine layer of darkness just before it receded. She gasped, rubbing her mouth a bit.

  “You need blood,” I stated the obvious.

  Lyra asked for my phone by using a phone-like hand gesture against her ear and pointing to herself. I gave it to her, she grabbed her book and opened it to a seemingly random page near the middle. There was a phone number and a few keywords to say to the person on the other end.

  Her book was the most dangerous item in all of Encinar if my sire was right. Lyra wouldn't even allow me to take a close look at it. That book could hold so many phone numbers, names, phrases… we’d be ruined if the police ever got their hands on it.

  A person answered the phone as if it were a regular delivery store and I ordered takeout. Or at least I tried to.

  The person yelled something akin to, “My fucking ear!”

  I remembered what Caleb's partner had said about their recording and that caused me to groan. “They won't hear my voice…”

  “Hello?” the person asked. “Is this some kind of prank? Who is this?”

  Lyra snatched the phone from me and pressed a few buttons in rapid succession like she was trying to type into it. She searched around until she found a text-to-speech setting and used that.

  The bland feminine voice flowed out and repeated my words on ordering takeout. The man asked where to deliver them to and Lyra told him, followed by saying, “With Special Sauce on the side.”

  It all sounded fairly normal to my ears.

  No more than twenty minutes went by before a fancy car arrived outside the house. A person got out and laughed. “Now that's what I expect a vampire’s house to look like!” he exclaimed.

  Lyra faded into the dark by pulling a hood over her bright hair and dipping behind the front door.

  The man looked around as he approached the house. He didn't feel nervous at all when he knocked, nor when Lyra opened the door for him in a way he couldn't see her.

  He stepped inside, striding past Lyra toward the main room where I sat on the floor.

  The elf slipped out from the wall, stalking quietly behind him, fangs out with a hungry stare I recognized to be dangerously close to frenzying. That same starving look all fledgling held before their first proper meal.

  I could warn him, but that would spoil the hunt. Instead, I smiled and motioned for him to sit down. “Welcome! Welcome! I see you had no trouble finding the place.”

  He shook his head, sitting down next to me, and said, “Your directions were easy enough to follow.”

  I leaned toward him, a wide grin on my face as I said, “Good! Now… Are you ready?”

  He nodded.

  “There is a hungry vampire in this house who desires to hunt a mortal. I will not tell you where she is, only that she wants your blood, but shall not kill you. Name your price.”

  The man shrugged. “Don’t think I’ve ever had a request to be toyed with before the meal. My usual price is a thousand gold, but that’s a straight feeding session. Not being chased around Westcal. What can you give me?”

  “How does five thousand sound? With an extra two thousand for every night you elude the vampire?”

  “Make it an extra four large per night and I’ll consider it.”

  He was cocky, which was good. That’d give Lyra the advantage, but she was cocky as well and that was a bad thing for the fledgling. I had given her a few cans of blood before the man arrived, but again. She didn't have much.

  “Eleven thousand tonight?” I asked, lifting my eyebrows at the man. Quite a steep price, but I had a lot of gold to burn and he wouldn’t last the night.

  “Well, yeah.” The man nodded and continued, “You try being hunted!”

  I folded my arms across my chest, frowning at the man, inclining my head toward the door. “I evaded vampire hunters for over a century. Even fought some the other night. Being hunted is my nightly routine.”

  “Oh…”

  We went over the terms; I would be the mediator to ensure he didn't die and Lyra would hunt him how she saw fit. He’d have a five minute head start and could fight back if he wanted, but he couldn't kill Lyra. Stakes were allowed, as it would be unfair to a mortal if he was unable to paralyze her.

  With the deal sealed, the man was off like lightning.

  A few moments later, Lyra clapped her hands together, flashing a fang-filled grin once again. She really did remind me of me when I was a fledgling. I knew where the meals were and my sire didn’t. It felt like an odd circle of events to be in.

  I followed at a safe distance to not reveal her position as she stalked out of the house into the oak forest around my property.

  It was quiet with Amelia floating silently next to me. The two of us walked hand in hand as best I could. She kept up fairly easy and seemed to be staring at the growing storm clouds above us.

  I tilted my head and asked, “What do you see?”

  She sighed softly, turning her head to smile at me. “A new age for you, my love. Perhaps you can take up the mantle of Mayor one day, but first you need a new home.” The ghost tossed a hand in the direction of my dilapidated abode.

  “I need money before I can do that. Do you have any ideas?”

  “Have you asked Dinner? They are not adverse to our lifestyle. Perhaps they have the answer?”

  “Perhaps.” I shrugged, turning away from Amelia to check on Lyra. She was crouched low behind a tree while the mortal was hunting around for a stick in the distance, likely wanting to make a spear.

  It will be a long night for me

  *** ***

  Lyra did an odd thing when she caught the mortal an hour and a half later. She turned the struggling mortal toward me and nodded, biting at the air in an exaggerated manner.

  I tilted my head at her gesture. She is giving me the first sip?

  An odd idea, since she was the hungry one. So I shook my head as thunder rumbled softly in the distance.

  “I agreed to not partake in this blood sack, so drink away, fledgling!”

  She bit down right as Dinner’s headlights turned onto my driveway, illuminating the two in an overly bright glow powered by every forward light on that bubble car. It made the vehicle appear like the morning sun cresting over the horizon. I might have fled if I didn’t know any better and hadn't been reborn during a time when fire was more prevalent.

  Lyra hissed loudly, becoming a full on shriek of terror as she released the blood sack and dashed into the welcoming darkness that was the treeline of Amelia’s Forest.

  I shook my head at the fledgling. She would need to learn how to control that impulse. It was something I learned fast.

  The man practically fell to his knees. He caught himself, got up and asked pointedly, “Does this count as being bitten?”

  “Is she still attached? Keep running, blood sack!”

  He felt his neck and glanced around, slowly backing away from the trees before breaking into a run.

  Dinner’s headlights went out when they neared me and plunged the property into darkness once again. I waited for them to drive closer and waved. The half-elf pointed at the man running past my house.

  “Should I be worried?” Dinner asked.

  I shook my head. “He agreed to be hunted by Lyra.”

  “Ah… I got your new clothes!” Dinner grinned at me, changing the subject fairly quickly. “A few long skirts, some nice shirts and pants I hope you like.”

  I pointed at my house. “Put them inside and feel free to stake Lyra if she attempts to bite you.”

  “Hey…” Dinner said, causing me to stop in my tracks as I turned to leave. They smiled up at me from inside their car as they continued nervously, “Would it be possible if I got paid for this? It's quite a lot of work and, like, I have a job, but I’m kind of out of work for the next two or three months while the Company decides if they wanna install a cybernetic spine in me or not.”

  With a small nod, I pulled a stack of credits from my jacket and gave them to Dinner. “Do you want me to keep paying you?” I asked, taking another two hundred out. We had stopped at a gold-to-credit exchange station where I pulled out two thousand credits thinking it’d be enough for the next month or so.

  Both Dinner and Lyra had chuckled at the idea and said it might last a week.

  Dinner bit their lip for a moment as they eyed the funny money. “If you don't mind? Like, I know I’m a bother, but I do fine with my classes. I’m a forty-nine Salvage Pilot and like thirty Driver. Or somewhere around there. I stopped looking at Driver a long time ago.”

  “You can have more than one class?” I asked.

  “You probably should pick one already. Yeah, you can totally do fine without one, but classes help a lot. They enhance what you can already do. Like, let's say you had the gene to pilot mechs and were hired by a company. They'd want you to be a Salvage Pilot so you could benefit from all the bonuses.”

  They turned their left arm over before I could speak, revealing thin lines in the skin that looked like the gaps in a ship’s hull plating. The lines ran from their wrist to roughly halfway down their forearm. Dinner gently pressed two fingers against their skin. My eyes widened as the half-elf’s flesh separated in the middle and the two slabs slid to the side. Inside their pale forearm were a pair of thick cables with plugs attached to them. Dinner grabbed the larger cable and pulled it out for me to see! Almost like they were pulling a non-bloody vein out from their arm.

  It was still connected to them even as they dragged the plug roughly a foot and a half out from their appendage.

  “This is the Pilot’s Neural Interface,” Dinner began as they slowly retracted the cable back into their arm. “I’m not gonna tell you the unfortunate nickname, but like, I’ll tell you that when I hook into my mech I feel as if the chassis is my body. My messed up spine only matters when I am outside of my mech and it hurts. Like, I don’t wanna feel pain anymore. That’s why I was okay with you draining me dry. It hurts to stand, hurts to sit, when will it stop, Cassy?”

  I nodded slowly. It sounded similar to being embraced by a vampire, but worse in that Dinner can only experience normality at specific times rather than all the time. They went on to tell me about a skill they called Mech Sight. It was adapted from a driving skill and allowed Dinner to precisely judge gaps they could fit their vehicle into that other people would ignore.

  Afterward, they said, “Let me park and I’ll tell you some more about the class.”

  And so I followed Dinner to my house while keeping an eye on Lyra. It was odd. For the first time in a week I felt like I had everything together even with a dilapidated house. I had a new retainer, a fledgling, or two if you count Caleb, and my house. Even if it was falling apart.

  Jean was hiding, Encinar was a bustling city, but the only thing I needed to do was find a steady source of income. With Halifax being a ‘vampire paradise’ I doubted that would be a problem. All I had to do was avoid the vampire police and pray to God their investigation of the port events didn't lead back to me.

  Perhaps if I laid low like my sire said, then that meant they'd ignore me long enough I could entrench myself in the new underworld and be protected from the inquisition. Or I could stride out into the streets and demand answers from Jean.

  That sounded like a perfect plan.

  *** ***

  I sat on the cold front bumper of Dinner’s car with a can of blood in my hand. We faced away from the house so we could watch the forest.

  Dinner had pulled a cloth folding chair out from the car’s frunk where they also kept a ground based remote controlled drone and transmitter. The half-elf sat next to me with their own drink in hand, sipping from it while I slowly scrolled through the System Menu in an attempt to find Salvage Pilot by sorting through rarity. Dinner mentioned I should look at the common ones first to see if I liked any.

  The most common class was Laborer with various subclasses for that. Each one had a branch to it that included specific jobs. Such as when you picked Laborer it branched out into Farmer, Driver, and other menial tasks. Each one of those branched out into other trees.

  Driver, for example, branched out into a few different jobs; Truck Driver, Limousine Driver, Taxi Driver, and those branched out even further with Truck Driver having far more specialties. Such as Cement Truck Driver, Dump Truck Driver, Gunite Truck Driver, Fuel Truck Driver. The list went on.

  The problem was when I looked at Entertainer earlier. It also branched into Driver, but it was blocked off for me. I was unable to actually see what Entertainer subclasses I could pick from, so I went back to Laborer.

  Again, I had the subclass for Driver, Farmer, Construction, and Household. Household was highlighted a light green color. I dove into the menu and followed it to Butler (38).

  I backed out of that menu and glanced at the Criminal Tree, since it was highlighted green as well. Pirate (60+) glowed softly.

  As was Politician - Mayor (32).

  “Here's the thing about Salvage Pilot,” Dinner said, breaking my concentration. I dismissed the menu and gave the lanky half-elf my attention. They turned their left wrist over so they could look at the plating where skin should be. I hadn't noticed it in the club, because I was just that hungry and it was dark enough the faint lines were fairly well hidden. Even now. I knew it was there and still struggled to see it in the moonlight.

  Dinner continued, “I find it fun. Like, it is where I can feel truly alive. I dunno, maybe it's because I don't need to worry so much about me and can just focus on taking out the hostiles. But like, it's a lot of work. Imagine having to keep track of your mech’s temperature, ammunition, radar, comms, and dodge enemy fire while keeping your eyes on the target.”

  “So not much different than corralling a ship crew to fight?”

  “Not really… It’s kinda like being with you. Dangerous, but it makes me smile.”

  Amelia sat behind us on the car’s frunk as she watched Dinner and I. She shook her head. “I do not see how you can be a Salvage Pilot, my love. It sounds like a job that’ll take you into the day and we both know what happens then.”

  My eyes drifted across the trees ahead of us while I thought about what they were saying.

  Lyra and the blood sack were still out there. The fledgling wasn't very good at catching live prey who knew they were being hunted. I should give her a few tips to hide better, because Lyra was stomping through the brush rather than sneaking. I didn't need to see the elf to know precisely where in the treeline she was. She was just that noisy.

  Dinner huffed and shook their head. “Have you thought of what class you wanted?”

  “Not really.” I sipped from the can of SymCo blood and closed my eyes. It was warm, fairly plain and tasted about as well as the canned blood usually did, which is to say, not all that great. I licked my fangs to get every last drop as my thoughts drifted back to a time when only just last week I had an intact house.

  It was beautiful and painted a bright, if slightly gaudy, mint green. There was a clear view of the water-filled bay and city below. Isabella thought that perhaps it was a bit too far from Encinar, but I liked the privacy that entailed. It allowed Amelia and I, and a few other hand picked servants, to coexist in a place far from prying eyes.

  There we could hold hands, kiss and make love beneath the moonlight. All without someone saying it was uncouth. Or against God. Or threatening our lives. We could raise a family.

  But there was something else in the memory. A dark shadow looming in the distance I couldn't understand. It hovered over Encinar and the best description I can muster for it is an airship in the sky raining streaks of flame onto the city.

  I pushed the memory aside and looked over at Dinner. “When I awoke, the System told me ‘your previous experiences with the Nassau Empire have granted you Vampire Level Fifty-five’. Explain what it means by ‘my previous experience’.”

  “Dunno.” Dinner shrugged. “I've never heard of that message before. But also I dunno anyone that slept through the system creation.”

  “Perhaps it is referring to when we worked for the Empress?” Amelia added, tapping her chin for a moment. “Though, I never received any messages like that either. It was just ‘you have been chosen by the System to guard this forest’.”

  I gave my shoulder a small massage, wondering if perhaps I should mention to Amelia what Lyra and I did. She might get a chuckle out of it. It wasn't something to speak about when guests were around, however. I shall wait until tomorrow night.

  “I can ask my CEO,” Dinner said, motioning to themself. “He was part of the old American Colonies as a mech pilot for Great Britain.”

  I nodded firmly. “That would be wonderful, Dinner.”

  While Dinner sent the message to their boss, I listened for any sign of movement from Lyra. She appeared to have stopped moving. At least audibly. I craned my head to hear anything from the fledgling.

  Time slowly stretched on without anyone uttering a sound just in case we had to get up and run into the trees. I trusted Lyra within reason, but she was also a fledgling. And fledglings make mistakes. However, she assured me she would only drink from the mortal when in full view of us.

  Dinner’s phone dinged. I knew what it was before they even opened their frown and said, “He says no. He hasn't heard of anyone receiving a System Message like that.”

  “Well,” I sighed and shook my head from side to side. “The System is telling me I have levels in my old professions, but it is acting like I do not have a Class just yet. It also claimed I was Pirate Level Sixty Plus. Any ideas?”

  “Mastery Rank One…? That's the best I can come up with.” Dinner tossed their hands out in a shrug. “Usually, it'd attach a letter at the end denoting the Mastery Rank from F to A with S++ being the highest. Like, my full main class is Salvage Mech Pilot Rank B, Level forty-nine. Once I hit sixty and go through a few trials, I’ll be at A Rank level one with all my previous abilities. Only now they’re stronger.”

  “Are there any experts on the System that might know what is going on with me?”

  “Maybe Lady Ventrosa? Halifax? Any of the ancient dragons, really, but like. Good luck getting an audience.”

  “Anyone else?”

  “The Empress, Her Golden Majesty, but, I dunno if She'll help. She’s kinda grumpy and, like, kinda on another planet right now.” Dinner took a long sip from their drink.

  “Another planet?” I raised an eyebrow at them.

  They pointed toward the sky where normal-looking storm clouds were rolling in and blocking one of the continents floating in the sky. “Us spacers call them planets. Dirt dwellers call them shards.”

  Lyra decided to take that moment to come stomping out of the bushes, ending any conversation about the System and corporations. She had the hogtied blood sack tossed over her shoulder. He was squirming, but the game was up. He lost. I’ll still give him the 11,000 gold as if he survived the night without being caught.

  Dinner slapped their knee and stood up. Almost immediately, they grabbed their lower back, stopping half-way to standing straight. I got up to help them, but they waved a hand dismissively and said, “It’s fine… Give me a moment.”

  “Are you sure?” I asked.

  They nodded a few times.

  “I think you need to select a class, my love,” Amelia giggled softly.

  I shook my head, motioning for her to wait. “Let’s deal with the blood sack tonight and I’ll pick Pirate tomorrow night. And look for Salvage Pilot later.”

  “Why not now?” Dinner asked.

  Amelia clapped her hands together. “Yes! Why not now?”

  As Lyra knelt next to the blood sack and bit into his neck, I brought up the system menu.